Friday, November 21, 2003

An Australian journalist recently tried to fly into the US for an interview with Olivia Newton-John about breast
cancer. She came away with a much better story, her own first-hand experience with how Dubya's crew is defending freedom in the grand old U.S. of A:

"Their justification for refusing me was that under American law ... [they] have the right to refuse a foreign journalist entry," she said.

"They said to me you don't understand, you have no choice, no rights here under American law."

A frequent business traveller to the US, Ms Smethurst said she still did not know why she was detained although she asked repeatedly what the issue was.

"Their words to me were: we will tell you when we have a problem and your silence is appreciated."

During the ordeal, "innocuous items" like lipliners and make-up - deemed "a national security threat" - were taken from her, she said.

At the end of this -- which included a full-body search, according to other reports, she was deported, with no reason given.

Remember, they're defending freedom. It's their opponents (of all stripes) who are the enemies of freedom. That makes it all a little easier to take.

More: I'm blogging tired this morning, which is why it didn't occur to me immediately to mention Maher Arar, who has rather more of a complaing, having been deported from an American airport to Syria for eight months of torture despite having not actually attempted to enter this country. That's via Jeanne D'Arc, who elsewhere discusses American claims that Syria had promised not to torture Arar; she's too polite to say that, particularly in the light of the Dubya crew's record, they're obvious lies...